Valdon v. Industrial Commission

434 P.2d 648, 6 Ariz. App. 532, 1967 Ariz. App. LEXIS 624
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arizona
DecidedDecember 11, 1967
DocketNo. 1 CA-IC 135
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 434 P.2d 648 (Valdon v. Industrial Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arizona primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Valdon v. Industrial Commission, 434 P.2d 648, 6 Ariz. App. 532, 1967 Ariz. App. LEXIS 624 (Ark. Ct. App. 1967).

Opinion

STEVENS, Judge.

Seferino Valdon had passed his 65th birthday at the time of the industrial incident in question. The incident occurred in the course and scope of his employment. The doctors agreed that there are no objective residuals. Valdon urges that before the accident he could and did engage in heavy physical labor and that since the accident he can no longer do so. The question presented to us is whether the Award of The Industrial Commission, which determined that Valdon sustained no permanent disability bearing a causal relationship to the industrial incident, is reasonably supported by the evidence.

Valdon was born on 11 February 1898 and is a man of limited formal education. He has worked steadily since his youth. During most of his working life his employment has required physical strength. Valdon boxed professionally from 1914 to 1942. As a youth he learned the barber’s trade and he followed this trade as a means of earning a livelihood for approximately 7 years before he became employed by Maricopa County. He testified that his customers were exacting and that some demanded to be closely shaven or as Valdon expressed it, his customers would say “Shave me close, give me a shave two days under the skin”.

Valdon commenced his employment with the Highway Department of Maricopa County on 16 August 1956 a few days short [533]*533■of seven years prior to the time of his injury on 29 July 1963. During the period of Iris employment by Maricopa County he ■did little or no barbering. During his employment by Maricopa County he was included within the State Retirement System, •contributing a portion of his wages each payday as required by law.

At the time of his injury the Personnel Department of Maricopa County carried Valdon under an “Equipment Operator” classification. His duties were not limited to the operation of equipment. In his work he was assigned to a crew having the responsibility for painting traffic control stripes in the highway. Valdon’s duties included unloading cans of paint weighing 80 to 90 pounds from carload shipments; mixing the paint for use on the highways, and dumping the paint into the striping machine; standing on the rear of a truck and stooping to pick up warning cones after the paint was dry; and other duties requiring strength as well as bodily movement. Only a portion of the time was devoted to the driving of equipment. In short, it was a job assignment calling for many types of physical activity. Some crew members were younger than Valdon and some were older.

Under the Retirement System, Valdon was eligible to retire at the age of 65 but was not required to do so. Under the employment policies in effect at the time of his injury, Maricopa County employees were permitted to continue to work until they reached the age of 70 if they were fully capable of properly performing their daily responsibilities. At a hearing held on 12 November 1964, Valdon’s former supervisor, Mr. Caro, testified. In describing the work, he stated that,

“(T)here is no one man affiliated to one job in our department. We are sort of called a jack-of-all trades, because our department, we are limited to personnel.”

He further testified that all members of the crew must be in good physical condition, that he could not use Valdon as a member of the crew in Valdon’s physical condition as of the date of the hearing for the reason that,

“Well, like I just mentioned, some of our type work calls for moving fast on the roads, and you can’t string along. You have to move behind your striping machines, and especially on the intersection machines. I mean, you have to move at a pace to where you have to block traffic ahead of that machine, sort of— well, marking pavement you have your left-turn slots, your right-turn arrows, your left-turn arrows, all this is marking and bending over and moving fast, so that the striping machines can move through and lay out the work and block the intersection. * * *
“In various types of work you have to handle sacks of reflective ground glass that reflects the paint at night. You have to move them out of the truck by hand and get them as fast as you can to the machine whenever it runs out. You have to mix paint, you have to lift up the buckets of paint after it is mixed with the thinner and put them in the machine. * * * It’s a lot of physical work, yes, sir.”
“ * * * Mr. Valdon has worked with me in my crews up to the time of his injury. Mr. Valdon—I guess his physical background will almost say it—he was husky and he was fast, and he could move around and—well, let’s say he held is (sic) age for doing the type of work we had in the department.
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“Well, he could—-I would say that he could—he could do the work that normally I used to do when I was about, I guess, 29, 30 years old. I am 35 now.
“In other words, he could do whatever was expected out of him on these crews such as digging holes, standing on top of the truck, mounting the signs, mixing paint, picking up these sacks of reflective ground glass.
“Like I stated before, he filled the machines, mixed paint, set out cones, marked [534]*534the various intersections with the other crew members. Even as far as when we came to our loading on our paint and our own beads—they used to come in semitrailers and tractors—and he used to pitch right along with the rest of us.”

During the period of Valdon’s employment with Maricopa County he sustained a number of injuries. In relation to some of the injuries there is an official record of a claim in the files of the Industrial Commission and these were referred to in connection with the claim in question. Valdon sustained a 1961 industrial incident resulting in an Award which determined that he had a residual 5% permanent disability to the left wrist. He also sustained an injury to his right wrist in about 1962 resulting in some limitation of motion. Notwithstanding these injuries, he continued his •full-time employment and duties. In relation to at least one injury he testified that he made no claim merely taking a few days sick leave and returning to work. All agreed that Valdon was not a malingerer and that there was no reason to disbelieve his statements.

With this general background, a portion of which relates to post-injury matters, we turn to the injury in question. On 29 July 1963, Valdon was helping unload a carload of paint. The paint was in cans weighing between 80 and 90 pounds each. He was standing on, one can, securing other cans and handing them to another member of the crew when he fell and injured his back and hip. He promptly reported the incident but declined to then file a claim with The Industrial Commission. He attempted to continue to work and was favored on the job as much as possible by his fellow crew members. The condition became more painful.. Valdon sought medical aid at his own expense. Finally he stopped work on 23 September 1963. We do not have his work record between the time of the injury and 23 September. The Industrial Commission files disclose that the first reports in relation to the incident were the employer’s report which was filed on 1 October and Valdon’s report which was filed on 3 October 1963.

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Bluebook (online)
434 P.2d 648, 6 Ariz. App. 532, 1967 Ariz. App. LEXIS 624, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/valdon-v-industrial-commission-arizctapp-1967.